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Here is how I will do it… Take the DVR and program all the necessities on your desk – statis IP adress, passwords, cameras resolution, etc before you take it to attic. Once you move it to the attic, you do not need long HDMI cable to connect to this DVR for any purpose nor will need mouse or keyboard connection.. However you will need length of Ethernet cable from the DVR to connect to your router. That is it! You also have to program your router (open specific ports, assign specific internal or external static IP addresses, etc.) to allow remote or even local access to your DVR. You did not mention the make and the model for your DVR. I have not seen any DVR or NVR that did not come with or did not have remote client software, allowing you to connect to your DVR locally or remotely. Once you tell us the make and the model of your DVR, then I am sure the forum will advise what to use. Hope this helps.

The major misconception of the Intellex system is that it is a proprietary and you can not make any modifications nor can change basic components... Well, that is not true. In basic format, Intellex is a proprietary product build in and around basic computer system. What makes it proprietary is its software and its capture card... all the rest of the components are standard off the shelve items. It is a very well accepted product in the market by many organizations and deliver excellent and very productive results - until it fails.. Here are my take on TEN assumptions that surround this product and creates unnecessary confusion. Assumption #1 – many will assume that you can not change the motherboard/processor combinations with anything else other than Intel based solution – wrong assessment. You can use motherboards from different manufacturers using both Intel or AMD chipsets. Our tests revealed that AMD based motherboards/processors provide much better performance than Intel based solutions. Consideration for this type of change is and always will be more cost effective in the future than any Intel based motherboards/processors combination. You have to make sure to provide the operating system all the drivers that will recognize your motherboard components and that is all... You also can reuse your existing MAC address allowing to use your existing SW key... Dependent which motherboard is used, there is a way to change its native MAC address to user defined MAC address. Assumption #2 – many will assume that the video card can not be anything else other than what Intellex comes with – wrong assessment. You can use video cards from various other manufacturers. Make sure that you are using at least 128MB of on-board RAM (256 MB is preferable) and also make sure that you manually provide its respective driver. I am sure that someone will dispute this claim, as typical video card that comes with latest Intellex systems is 64MB and that video processing mostly occurs with capture card in the system. However, there are utilities available that can clearly show that higher video RAM and faster GPU based video cards do contribute better performance. It does not increase video resolution at all, rather increases video performance. The main bottleneck restriction of the higher video resolution and performance is based on the capture card hardware setting, which can not be changed. Assumption #3 – many will assume that hard drives must be by Western Digital – wrong assessment. Western Digital drives are great products and come with three years warranty. They also come with 7200 RPM speeds in both PATA and SATA format and they perform very well. With few dollars more, you can buy Surveillance Grade Seagate hard drives that come with five years warranty with similar specs and yet, operate cooler. Any hard drive operating cooler does and will prolong the life expectancy of such hardware and besides, additional two years warranty is the icing on the cake. Assumption #4 - many will assume that the power supply should not be more than 400W and it must be exact same manufacturer – wrong assessment. With simple calculation of all the hardware Intellex systems, it is obvious that 400W power supplies are just enough for the task. Using basic formula available anywhere and here is one that you can use as a reference - http://educations.newegg.com/tool/psucalc/index.html shows clearly that if the Intellex system comes with 500GB or more internal storage, the required powers is 388W. The main problem is that you always have to allocated at least 20% overhead on any power supply used for any computer based machine, so that your power supply does not fail due to heat built up or availability of no overhead. This basic formula explains the main reason why Intellex power supplies fail more often than usual and require constant replacement. Instead, you must use power supplies with at least 450W capacity and I recommend efficiency factor with no less than 80% and also that it comes with several fans of its own, preferably at least one that has 120MM fan. This type of spec power supplies last very long time and surpass even life expectancy of most components in the same system. The efficiency factor also helps to reduce your electrical bill, as it guarantees this high percentage of transfer of energy. It operates much cooler and is less noisy compared to what original power supplies come with such systems. Assumption #5 – many will assume that CD burner can not upgrade to DVD burner – wrong assessment. There are patches available on AD website allowing you to upgrade your CD burner to DVD burner. But... the standard DVD burners you purchase today may not work with Intellex systems. The software that control burn function of CD or DVD burners is tightly integrated with Intellex software and it is a very old versions. Thus, it works only with older version DVD or CD burners, most of which are no longer available in the market. What can someone do to find this type of solution? One way is to buy dozen DVD or CD burners in the market and test them individually to confirm if they work or not. It is a very difficult challenge for any house that works with Intellex platform. There are few current models from various CD or DVD manufacturers in the market that work with older and newer Intellex systems. So, search or ask and you will find them. Assumption #6 – many will assume that you are not allowed to obtain all the Microsoft critical updates and must use only the updates that the manufacturer recommends – wrong assessment. This seems tricky, but very easy. I recommend to download and apply only the critical updates and nothing else. Install Firefox or Opera and disable Microsoft IE, the Outlook Express and the Media Player. Even if you disable the IE, you still be able to perform your updates, however, if you really have to use Intellex for web browsing (you should not use Intellex other than what it is intended), then do not use IE – instead use Firefox or Opera. Do not install any new software for different tasks. If you have to install printer, make sure it does not change your system configuration and do not take any updates from Microsoft for the same hardware. Assumption #7 – many will assume that Intellex internal storage will not exceed more than 750GB – wrong assessment. 750GB storage is the maximum internal storage available for Intellex platform from the manufacturer (excluding Intellex Ultra platform). However... Dependent if you have a desktop or rack mountable version Intellex, you can increase such internal storage to maximum 4TB (4,000GB). It is little tricky on how to do it, but with basic computer skills and persistency, it is fairly simple task. It may use all your ATA and SATA connections (exceptions apply to older boards that are restricted to no more than 4 ATA outputs), but with current storage capacities available from both Western Digital and Seagate reaching to 1TB (1,000GB), you can achieve this objective easily. Word of caution – make sure that you change your internal power supply to at least 600W and with 80+ efficiency. This way it will accommodate all the power requirements for these hard drives. Assumption #8 – many will assume that you can not backup video content from existing hard drives to newer hard drives – wrong assessment. You can transfer content of all your video per partition to a newer hard drive with the same size partition. The trick is not to exceed or short change the size of such partition. Due to Microsoft limitations of dividing hard drives to maximum four partitions, just remember that when assigning partition size, it matches with the original older partition contains the original video. There are many utilities available to perform this type of task. You have to insure that partition size and content mirrored and copied perfectly on the new drive. Once such copies are done, then visit Intellex Storage Manager and have these new partitions added to the database. Once complete, now you have access to your older video on a newer hard drives. Assumption #9 – many will assume that you can not add more internal fans or better system fans to improve air flow in and out of Intellex. Dependent which form factor Intellex you have, desktop or rack mountable, you can always either add more fans or use better fans to improve air flow in and out of the cases, thus increase life expectancy of your product.. In case of desktop form factor – make sure that besides the 120MM fan that must be part of your power supply, you also have one or two (dependent on age and version of such case) 60mm fan in the back of the case (above and near the processor fan). Always use ball bearing type of fans. You can also add yet another fan on the front of the case and right behind of the capture card. It will require to temporary move the front cover and use yet another 60mm X 1cm fan. Now, when you have a front fan pulling air into the case and the rear fans extracting air, what that does is helping constant move of the hot air away from internal components and increases life expectancy of the system. If you have rack mountable Intellex system, then here is what you do... Besides 120MM fan that is part of the power supply, you have to add two more 60mm fans in the back of the case. Replace 120MM fan that comes with the system for the following reasons.. First of all, it is way too laud and if you work with one, you can relay this clearly. Second, because its constant speed, it does not survive more than a year (we replaced too many of these fans and still do today). Instead, replace it with another 120MM fan that is quieter but more importantly, comes with built in thyristor. What this small component does for this type of fan is that it detects heat variations. Upon detection of more heat, it increases the fan speed to push more air or reduces if it senses less heat. This way, air flow fluctuates based on heat built up within the case. Assumption #10 – many will assume that adding more RAM into the system or utilizing rounded ATA cables will not make any difference in the system performance – wrong assessment. The debate for more RAM causing better performing Intellex is still going on. Here is my take which is based on facts. If you know how to perform registry change to allow the view of the performance of the entire system, then you can observe how Intellex operates. You can view the utilization of the processor and RAM usage based on every task you perform. The older systems came with 256MB of RAM, whereas the newer systems come with 512MB of RAM. Close analysis of RAM utilization through basic Windows Task Manager “Performanceâ€

A quick update for this post, which looks like started in 2008. All of these above steps not only worked very well over the years, but also saved substantial amount of money for many Intellex user customers.. In 2015 Microsoft announced that they will not sell Win7 licenses and customer have no choice but to move to Windows 10 platform. However, they insisted that they will continue to provide support for Win7 until year 2020. This created a new challenge in how to take ANY Intellex platform from version 3.2 all the way to version 4.3 (all variations from Standard, Deluxe and Premier) in order to operate in Windows 10 operating system. In early 2016 we successfully migrated any Intellex platform to operate in Microsoft latest version 10 OS and has been performing very well. If I am not mistaken, the manufacturer, American Dynamics brand new Intellex 5.x version still is operating in Windows 7 and I do not think they have any intentions to move Intellex into Windows 10. The biggest challenge in this new migration protocol was the available drivers that actually work with this latest Windows 10 operating systems. Happy to inform you that we went through at least 2,000+ migrations in the last 12 months and it is working great..

I suggest to put your DVR in a DVR lock box since it will reside in the attic. These units come with built in fans that maintains constant air circulation to keep your DVR in a stable temperature and keep dust away. Run the rest of the cables, including your network cable properly and you will be good to go… and program your DVR using remote client software..

Can anyone please ID this motherboard? This is part of old DVR series from CBC America. I am told this mobo is used for other manufacturer DVRs as well.. I searched online with some part numbers from it and not much is avail. Any info will be appreciated.

Glad to hear that you found the link and it works... any other questions, I am sure with combined member's effort, we can answer them..

Make sure you have dual core CPU to start off with... increase RAM to 1G (make sure you are using pair of exact same memory modules), change the video card with at least 512MB onboard memory ... and clear all your temp files (go to start, run and then type %temp% "enter").. select all the files and delete.. Not much else you can do unless you want to change the motherboard with quad core CPU and more RAM.. I am sure your system is using Win XP... and you will be bound by this OS limitations. Such overall limitations can be thing of the past if you are to migrate to Win7 environment. This type of upgrade takes much better use of given hardware and performance increases exponentially. Of course there is a cost associated with it, but at least such option is available. This applies to all 4.x versions available today. American Dynamics does not offer this solution. Hope this helps...

After you change the hard drive and besides the firmware recognizing and formatting this hard drive, the system also requires for you to run a utility that actually picks up very small slice on this same hard drive and installs content, that you will need to connect to this same DVR and/or run remote control... stream video, etc... I do not recall what is was called and you may even have this link in this forum (I remember that I put a link many years ago about this same topic) that will allow you to download and install this utility... hope that link is still live...

What make and model are your PTZ cameras?

I am not sure what Moores is charging for repairing AD Ultra Domes... We repair them too and have been for over 10+ years. Check your PM for more info..

Which manufacturer PTZ cameras do you need repaired?

First, go back to your old PC and get the product ID (or serial number) for your Network Client. Also, check the version of that software. Once you have both piece of the info, then go to American Dynamics website and find the correct version of Network client and then install into new PC and use the same serial number found in old PC... Once done, then you can upgrade Network client to the latest version (I think it is 5.x at the moment) at no cost... the key is to make sure you have a valid license regardless of age. Once that is confirmed, then you can upgrade it to latest Network client version available at no cost to you... Otherwise, you have to buy new license. Hope this helps.

Glad to hear that Intelex is working... just to be on the safe side, change the power supply if you can. As for both laptops giving you an error - seems like you installed the Network Client with the same license or may have had older license and since you upgrade, it sees it as a duplicate... the only solution is to get another Network Client, as there is no going around it. Good luck.

Since you mentioned that operating system is Win2000, it is a version 3.0 through 3.2... and the version will not be causing these issues anyway. I don't think this problem has anything to do with power supply either. You are giving a hint that after you change the internal IP addresss, it starts acting up and seem like it is looking for some information from CD, since CD is constantly lit after changin internal IP address. Lets try few things first - check the BIOS boot sequence... make sure it is set to recognize the main drive to be first in order for boot... plug in an actual keyboard and a mouse for testing purposes. Once it start booting and goes to Intellex software, then exit to go to desktop. Go to system drivers section and make sure all the drivers are set correctly... Also, go to network section and make sure the that is it recognizing the correct driver and that MAC address is native and has not been user changed. When you see that CD is lit while changing anything, that means the system is looking for some sort of a driver or a validation of version change or trying to confirm the network driver/IP change... if for whatever reason you do not adapt to required change request, then the system hangs... thus becomes unstable. Please get back to us with some answers after trying all the above recommendation and lets see where this goes. Worst case scenerio, you may require to restore the entire system again. Hope these recommendations are helpful.

It's your choice to buy new DVR vs. getting restore CD set that will allow you to restore your entire Intellex system back to normal. For less than $100 you should be able to obtain set of (3) CDs that cover both vesion 2.6 and 3.2... You should be able to ordet them from local AD supplier... it is a common part in their lineup. Good luck.

Please find some observations below.

Can you tell us what is the product code or the model number of your Intellex? It should reside either on the door or on the bottom of the case. This process will help to ID the version of the Intellex. Dependent what is the version, you can buy restore CDs for that particular model, which also will come with all the necessary drivers, including the VACD driver (Or sometimes called TriMedia driver). Once the restore process is complete, then use the software key that also resides at the same place where you find the product code, MAC address, etc and the system should work just fine. American Dynamics website does not have these restore CDs available for download. What they have are drivers, patches, upgrades or updates specific to Intellex version... When you conclude the restoring Intellex application, then you can upgrade or update it to next available level provided if your hardware will support it. Using older Intellex software on the new hardware poses other issues... drivers incompatibility is one... most important, it will ask for a new software key. You will not be able to use your existing sofware key, since the version of the Intellex, in this case older one, will require a different software key that is tied to that older version Intellex. You can not simply upgrade the operating system easily from functional Intellex that may be working on Win2000 or WinXP. No such OS upgrade available from Microsoft. What is available however is called migration process that takes any older Intellex system and migrates to Windows 7 operating system. I worked on that project in-house and it took us roughly six weeks to conclude this procedure. This way, you can have any version Intellex to operate in Windows 7 environement. This migration is not available from American Dynamics, so there is no product to buy from the manufacturer and perform this task. It is a migration service that we offer directly to Intellex users. As for recovery of your old drive - is your system reporting SMART error only, which is a BIOS function? If so, did you try to disable the SMART function in BIOS and try again? Before proceeding with this function, duplicate the old hard drive and keep a copy just in case. This BIOS function had its uses in the past with pre-Windows 2000 systems. However, since operating systems became a lot more responsive, that function is no use in most cases. Normally the curruption if any takes place with drive c: and the remainder of the drive is storage. Unless you can confirm for sure that your old hard drive is totally damaged, then there may still be a chance to recover what it contains. Hope this helps and if you have any other questions, please let us know.

Since you have a restrictive budget, lets see if we can replace that defective camera.. What will help if you can tell us make and the models of the DVR and cameras - ADT uses many different manufacturers, so because it is ADT does not mean it is Tyco product line. Based on that info, it is possible to suggest replacement of the camera or all of the cameras and then focus on the DVR... If it currently has 1TB for a month of recording, it can upgrade to higher storage... which also means that you can increase recording resolution, FPS (or IPS) and extend number of days storage. It is possible that what ADT delivered, they set everything to normal resolution and low FPS setting, thus the playback picture quality is very low. With increase storage, you can adjust to record higher resolution, thus the playback video quality will be much better. Get back to us with this info... I am sure other will jump in to help.

What is the make and the model of your DVR.

This link - http://utcfssecurityproducts.com/CustomerSupport/Pages/TriplexDVMReCT%28V573%29DSTCompliant.aspx contains not only the manual, but all the other available utilities for your DVR. Good luck.

Has anyone had any experience with Hikvision IP cameras? I read some posts about their DVRs and NVRs, but nothing specific to their IP cameras. Are they durable and work well? How is the picture qualify on video stream with H.264 compression? What is their warranty and how is their technical support? How do they handle warranty related problems with their hardware? Any comments and suggestions will be appreciated.

Also, check this link - viewtopic.php?f=6&t=13730&p=247973&hilit=ten#p247973 - I wrote this thread few years ago... Intellex is not a difficult platform to repair... actually extremely simple.. Hope this also can help.

Nice work...

Nice work buddy... some additional info that can help...